We’re not real sure why people love to believe simplistic things about their health and the human body. Perhaps we like to believe simple folklore because, even if not true, it feels like a common, shared bond that “everybody knows” and so we can repeat with others knowing they’ll agree.

Leave it to the British Medical Journal and authors Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll (2007) to spoil our holidays by debunking seven of the most commonly repeated medical myths about our bodies and living today. According to their review of the medical literature, each one of these tidbits of common wisdom are false:

1. People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
2. We use only 10% of our brains
3. Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
4. Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser
5. Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
6. Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy
7. Mobile phones create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals.

We’ve probably all heard one or more of these throughout our lives. Now go around and let your friends and family know that it’s actually a myth that that turkey Christmas dinner is making you sleepy (because that turkey contains no more tryptophan than other meets and actually helps your digestion). Cheers!

Read the full article, Medical myths, over at the BMJ.

Reference: Vreeman, R.C. & Carroll, A.E. (2007). Medical myths. British Medical Journal, 335: 1288-1289.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Dec 2007
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